KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said his recent comments about students contracting COVID-19 once they return to school were “taken out of context.”
“The reality of it when I say that this virus is going to be in our school system, somebody acts like I don’t care about that,” Parson said during a media briefing Monday in Kansas City, Missouri. “I care deeply about that, but I also think it’s very important as public officials that you speak the truth about that.”
On Friday, Parson said during a radio interview that youth are the "lowest risk possible" where the virus is concerned.
"If they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they're not going to the hospitals," he said on the Marc Cox Morning Show. "They're not going to have to sit in doctor's offices. They're going to go home and they're going to get over it."
It is a “real possibility,” according to Parson, that school districts will have to contend with coronavirus cases.
“We would never in my life want to take kids or teachers and put them in there in a terrible situation,” he said on Monday, “but I do think you have to weigh out the science of this and where you go with this. And whatever we do, we’ll see how it all turns out in the future, but I think right now it’s important if we can get kids back to school safely.”
